The Trust of the Innocent Pet Owner

“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
Steven King

Many pet owners, perhaps the greatest majority, walk into any pet store or retail outlet and completely believe every pet food and pet treat label they see; the mere thought that this label might not be 100% honest does not even enter their minds. Why is that?

Your second cousin calls, wanting you to invest money because he’s invented a better mouse trap; you don’t believe him. You see a television commercial that claims this astounding product will make you look and feel 20 years younger, you don’t believe it. However the greatest majority of pet owners believe pet food television commercials and pet food labels without question. Is it the pictures of innocent dogs and cats on the label? Is it because the bag or can ‘looks good’?

Regardless of what ‘it’ is, ‘it’ continues to happen with millions of pet owners; unknowingly purchasing dog food, cat food, and pet treats whose ingredients don’t quite match television and label claims. For those innocent pet owners, being led down the advertising path, here is some truth about pet food regulations, advertising, and labels.

AAFCO, the American Association of Feed Control Officials, develops the pet food regulations that every U.S. State’s pet food regulations are based on; most States accept AAFCO’s regulations flatly without change. The FDA, who is responsible for pet food quality and safety, accepts AAFCO’s regulations without question. Regulation PF7 of the AAFCO manual, category Nutritional Adequacy states: (a) “The label of a pet food or specialty pet food which is intended for all life stages of the pet or specialty pet may include an unqualified claim, directly or indirectly, such as ‘complete and balanced’, ‘perfect’, ‘scientific’ or ‘100% nutritious’…”

In other words, pet foods are allowed to make health claims on pet food labels that are NOT substantiated; not honest. Legal permission for the pet food label to lie to you.

Television commercials and pet food labels imply the pet food contains choice cuts of meat with pictures of such on the label and in the commercial. Some others boldly state this pet food is the ‘Best’ nutrition for your dog or cat. However, what is actually inside the bag or can, might be something quite different; something an innocent pet owner would never consider feeding their pet. The common pet food ingredients ‘Animal Fat’ and ‘Meat and Bone Meal’ were determined by the FDA to be most likely to contain a euthanized animal; euthanized because of a disease or illness. This means millions of dogs and cats that consume dog foods and cat foods containing these ingredients (and/or a few other ingredients) are likely to be eating not only a diseased animal, but the drug used to end the life of that animal as well. Furthermore, these same pet foods that contain euthanized diseased animals, all make claims of ‘Healthy’, ‘Premium’, ‘Nutritious’, and more.

A lethal drug and a diseased animal doesn’t sound ‘nutritious’ does it?

On the flip side, there are many high quality dog foods, cat foods, and pet treats on the market; however, these companies are forced by pet food regulations to make their labels look exactly like the pet foods that use rendered euthanized, diseased animals. Unknowing, innocent pet owners strolling down a pet food aisle are defenseless without taking a closer look at the pet food label, specifically the ingredient list.